1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates, in general, to air conditioning systems. In particular, the invention relates to an air conditioning system which uses a plurality of split-type air conditioning apparatus each of which includes an internal air conditioning unit having a heat exchanger, a fan device and a control circuit and an external refrigerating circuit unit having a heat exchanger, a fluid path change value, a compressor, a fan device, etc. The internal air conditioning units of the air conditioning system are disposed inside the housing and the external refrigerating circuit units are disposed at a common place outside of the housing.
2. Description of the related art
In a building air conditioning system, a plurality of external refrigerating circuit units whose external shapes are similar to or the same as one another are disposed at a common place outside of the building. The plurality of external refrigerating circuit units are respectively connected to the corresponding internal air conditioning units, which are arranged inside the building, through refrigerant pipes.
In the above-described air conditioning system, it is necessary to check the corresponding relationship between the plurality of internal and external refrigerating circuit units when repairing or inspecting.
The Japanese laid-open patent No. 63-15027 discloses an air conditioning apparatus which has a "proving means" for detecting the above-described relationship and a control device for actuating the proving means. In this laid-open patent, a display lamp is provided, as the proving means, to the plurality of internal and external refrigerating circuit units, and a switch is provided, as the control device, in each remote controller which controls the operations of the corresponding internal and external refrigerating circuit units. Display lamps mounted on the corresponding internal and external refrigerating circuit units are operated when the switch (input means) of one of the remote controllers is operated. Thus, the proving operation can be carried out without actually operating the air conditioning apparatus. However, in the abovedescribed proving operation, an additional element, i.e., the display lamps, is needed to check the corresponding relationship between internal and external refrigerating circuit units. In addition to the manufacturing cost of these lamps, there is the additional problem of maintaining them to prevent failure which would prevent the proving operation. The Japanese laid-open patent also discloses another proving operation wherein internal and external fan devices are used as the proving means when inspecting. When the switch of one of the remote controllers is operated, the internal and external fan devices of the corresponding internal and external refrigerating circuit units are operated at a predetermined operation pattern. Thus, the proving operation can be executed without adding any elements. However, in this proving operation, undesirable air flow occurs in the corresponding room during the proving operation.